Scrapbooking is just cutting and glueing

[knittynoodle]

Im going to be flamed for this Im sure, but I have a friend who is really really smug about her creations. We are a fairly crafty lot and she never took to any of the crafts we all tried - we try to give most of them a go even if we are rubbish or we find the craft rubbish. Shes more analytical and was fine as she was, until she found scrapbooking.

And now its simply the best thing ever, she does ever so many a week, she has a room dedicated to it, spends loads of money on it, goes to weekends away for it.

AIBU in thinking its just cutting and sticking. Most of the creation is done for you and you just add the detail.

(I also dont think hobbies like this should cost alot of money. I go to a free knitting group and we have teaching sessions among our group of friends)

I like cutting and glueing too.

My Granddad was a miner and he liked to make treasure boxes (a box filled with pretty rocks glued down with a glass front). He didn't give them to anyone or attempt to sell them, he just liked to make something that was beautiful to him. Perhaps it was a waste of his time but it gave him pleasure.

All hobbies are a bit mad to outsiders.

I think if there were more heart in the pieces she makes, I too would think awww.

All these examples are very sweet

Oh I can see the point now, say, of Sparke's books for her daughter. Now have crap mother guilt at not even putting photos into albums.

Well I'm grateful I have boys now...can't see them thanking me for pretty photo albums. Not that they would be pretty if I made them as I am supremely unartistic and cack handed.

Im using my skills to knit my DS bear ear hats and moustache/beardy balaclava's. Not sure he will appreciate them when hes old either!

lly, if it makes you feel better, I"ve just blown the dust off the top of the Birthday Book and the last entry was for DS2's 6th birthday.

He is 10 at the start of next month

Actually, the book is fab... it brings a tear to my eyes and a smile to my face. :)

WTF? Proper grown up adults do scrapbooking????

WTF? Proper grown up adults use multiple question marks?

I still don't really understand what it is.

Is it very decorated photo albums then?

I really love scrap books made inventively but I truly despise those "packs" you get. Its like saying "look at this amazing paint by numbers I just did" - no real skill involved. That said if it makes her happy who are we to comment?

Soupdragon, I'm saving your birthday book idea for my grandchildren.

Yesm they are just decorated phot albums. In many cases, with sickly sweet sentimental crap around then photo. Mine aren't like that though, they're just decorative. Looks nicer than a photo stuck on a page.

Milly, theoretically, you'll have time to do it for your grandchildren :o

when did 'scrapbooking' become a verb? around the same time as pre packaged accessories came on sale I suppose

I thought a scrpabook should be cuttings from the paper about things you were interested in, post cards from days out etc. You know scraps that you want to keep but that don't really have anywhere to go.

It is a million miles away from the lovely scrapbooks of the past.

I went to a craft store after a pack of eyelets for fabric and leather (I make clothing). Over half the "eyelets" on offer there were for card and paper, complete with very pricey, specifically-sized punching tools in adorable colours. What? This is a way to make the scrapbooking hoardes (In my opinion, semi-brain-dead women with no jobs and too much cash)spend more money when they've already bought stamps, stickers, and ready-cut-out kooky shapes. It's no better than a kiddie's play-set, but aimed at adults.

I occasionally get to see the results of these projects. What could have been a collection of nice family photos together in an album are swamped by punched borders, glitter glue, "eyelets" and easy-to-make letters spelling out saccharine phrases. There's no individuality to it, since all the gear comes semi-constructed from the same companies.

"There's no individuality to it, since all the gear comes semi-constructed from the same companies."

There may have been no individuality in what you have seen but you've seen a very small sample.

I was a leetle sceptical until someone bought DD (age 4 ) a little kit to make one. I thought it would be trite, but then DH got hold of it...

It is fantastic! So lovely what he did with DD, and using pictures of both children, and in no way twee or derivative.

Could I ask if any of you scrappers are American btw? (seems to be huge over there, and not really come across anyone in UK who does it in rl)

I blinked and missed when "keeping a scrapbook" became "scrapbooking". I can sort of see what the OP is getting at, that you can spend a lot of money to put your pictures into someone else's idea of a design, rather than doing something creative yourself. But if OP's friend isn't good at coming up with creative stuff and this makes her feel good, then fair enough.

First I realised that scrapbooks had changed was when I went to buy some for DD3's birth congrats cards/first birthday cards - I always used to do the same as my mum, go to Smiths and buy those big scrpabooks with the sugar-paper (the paper you use at school) pages. There was a small cheap one in the kids' craft stuff. "Scrapbooks" were expensive kits/books to put in those 12x12 loose pages.

They look fab, but they take up so much space. I do have all my photos in albums, but I still just do the same sort of scrapbooks as my mum when i find them ie as many cards/photos/school concert programmes as I can put on each page of a plain book. Same memories, not as decorative, but takes less storage space (and time!)

I may scrapbook one day but only when kids aren't at home in the day, and if I'm not working then.

I've just decopatched a mirror in the kids bathroom with a copy of The Beano

That was just ripping and gluing!